Mestre Pernalonga and Contramestre Rafael Xikarangoma released their second joint album last week, titled “Era Eu Era Meu Mano, Era Meu Mano Mais Eu – Volume 2”. It is a sequel to their hit album of a few years ago (2017 I think), which you can still hear in every capoeira school. The new album is again filled with beautiful capoeira music, both new and common songs.

One of the songs that I recognized immediately from the previous album is “Mulher Rendeira” (which translates to “woman lacemaker”), or as some call it “Lampião Desceu A Serra”. It is a song Contramestre Rafael has sung on several occasions. Since the song caught my ear again, I decided to learn it. In this article I dive deeper into the lytics of Mulher Rendeira and its origin.

Now, as with so many capoeira songs, Mulher Rendeira is an adaptation of an older song which exists outside of capoeira. Let’s take a look at the different versions that are out there.

Original song

First things first, let’s have a listen to the original version.

History

As you can read above, the song has something to do with Lampião. Mulher Rendeira, also known as “Mulé Rendera” in local dialect, is a Brazilian Xaxado song. Xaxado is a folkloric dance from Pernambuco. The song has a bit of history to it which can be found on the Portuguese Wikipedia page. I’ll paraphrase the description here:

“According to Lampião’s biographer and a historian, it was Lampião himself who composed the original verses of the song in honor of the birthday of his grandmother, who was a lacemaker (“rendeira”). He composed the song between September 1921 and February 1922. The song then quickly gained notoriety as it grew to be the war anthem of Lampião’s gang of bandits (“cangaceiros”). It is even said that more than 50 bandits sung Mulher Rendeira repeatedly while approaching the town of Mossoró during their famous attack in 1927.”

This recording is the oldest we know of and dates back to 1957. The song is attributed to Volta Seca, once a member of Lampião’s gang. So we can be pretty sure this version is as close to Lampião’s own verses as possible.

Adaptation in popular music

According to this article, there currently exist over 120 versions in 7 languages of Mulher Rendeira! That’s quite amazing considering the origin. Some more recent versions are those by Elba Ramalho, Demônios da Garoa. Trio Nordestino and Cida Moreira. They all have more or less the same lyrics, which differ slightly from the version above.

This time, the song is about Lampião who comes down a mountain to go to a party where he meets his future girlfriend Maria Bonita. In the version below, it’s more or less the same story with a different take.

Contramestre Rafael’s version

Now let’s take a look at Mulher Rendeira in capoeira. Contramestre Rafael uses more or less the same verses as the ones above, but he completely changed the chorus and replaced it with a simplified version of “ô sim sim sim, ô não não”. This makes it easier to learn and remember by beginners. It also fits nicely within the Lampião theme, since “ô sim sim sim” also has verses about Lampião.

(skip to 4:38)

* I can’t make out the last line of the second verse, but it’s something else than “namorando Lampião”.

Tony, Pitoco & Formiga

These three capoeiras have some YouTube videos with really good music. In this video Professor Pitoco sings Mulher Rendeira as a corrido. Below the video you can find a part of the lyrics, all lyrics are available in the description on YouTube.

As you can see, there can be quite a lot to discover when you decide to learn a new song!

— Vinho